Maguire Seven man speaks out over miscarriage of justice case
Back home at last: Sam Hallam and his mother Wendy
Miscarriage of justice victim Patrick Maguire has said Sam Hallam will be left with psychological scars because of his terrible experience of the criminal justice system.
Mr Maguire, who was jailed aged just 14 and spent four years in prison after wrongly being found guilty of involvement in the IRA pub bombings in Guildford in the 1970s, has played a key part of thesuccessful campaign to free Mr Hallam.
He said he thought the 24-year-old from Hoxton would find it hard to adjust to life on the outside as he had “just stepped out into the world again” immediately after being bailed and with no preparation whatsoever during an appeal at the High Court the day before his conviction was finally and sensationally quashed earlier this month.
Now an artist who has written a book about his life, Mr Maguire said he still struggled to come to terms with the harsh treatment meted out to himself and his family – five or his relatives and one family friend were also convicted on the strength of coerced confessions and other shaky evidence.
He said: “I’m on medication, and I have been, and I will be for the rest of my life because of what happened. You do come to terms with it to a certain degree but you get the flashbacks and it is that scarring that I was speaking about that lands on you. Each day is different. I have great days and bad days, but each day it seems to me, one way or the other, is connected either with my own history or, in the last few years, with Sam. It makes you more aware of things that go on in the world. I don’t think you ever do come to terms with it. Eventually you learn to live with it, or live alongside it.”
Mr Maguire is well placed to help Mr Hallam on the difficult path back into society.
But he said he believes the government should do its bit too. He helped found the Miscarriages of Justice Organisation (MOJO), which wants to establish special centres where, as he puts it, “people like Sam can just hang out and talk freely and openly but be understood.
“The government doesn’t even want to recognise the fact that there will be more miscarriages of justice. That’s why it took Sam so long to get freedom.”
Mr Hallam’s supporters and representatives are now weighing up his options and he may be eligible for some compensation. Mr Maguire, who has become a firm friend of Mr Hallam’s and a source of support for his mother Wendy, brothers Danny and Terry and sister Daisy, said he did not believe any amount of money could ever compensate for the ordeal.
“There’s no price on freedom,” he said, “and there’s no price on the truth or justice.
“Sam will pay a lot more than any compensation that will ever be given to him. He’s paid for it. His family are paying for it. It’s just pure ignorance on the part of anyone who thinks, ‘He’s alright now, he’s going to get a couple of quid.’”